john999

"Too complex" means the lawyer does not see the money.

I think foot drop is considered loss of use.

Get your own IMO or IME opinion. Who knows what the VA exam doctor will say. You get what you pay for and why put all your eggs in the VA basket. I have had many C&P exams over the years and 90% of them were bad.

If you are asking for money as in the form of a pension you will find the BCMR to be jerks of the highest order. If you are really asking for something substantial you need a lawyer. They treated me very badly when I asked that my regular discharge be changed to medical. They showed distain because I did not have a lawyer. They immediately fell back on 15 year rule.

If you can get evidence that the PTSD is a permanent and total condition I would submit this to the VA and request to be made permanent and total. You can also request Chapter 35 benefits based on being permanently disabled and if they grant Chapter 35 you are then P&T. It is a little round-about but it gets you there. That thing about the fire burning up all records at the VA is pure BS. Some records were destroyed, but some lazy clerks just don't want to do the research.

Bob-e If you want to win you claim focus on your own medical evidence. All the rest gets blown off by VA. Next time the VA wants to send you to the rubber room let them do it. That is good evidence of being mental. That is how I got my initial rating and how I got IU P&T.

It gets dicey when it is a 100% for a mental condition like PTSD. I just don't think it will do your claim much good if you are getting 100% and you tell the VA that you are working full time making more than poverty level. I know it is done by some, but they are special characters like Max Cleland. Just my opinion.

You should get a DX of PTSD from a private shrink MD. The VA does not really give that much weight to what a counselor at a Vet Center says. My Vet Center counselor wrote a report saying I had "chronic and severe PTSD". The VBA ignored that and said I had schizoprenia. Now if I had schizophrenia I don't think I could funtion well enough to have won my claim, but I got IU so it does not matter what these asses say. Besides the aliens tell me what to do since they put the little computer cell in my neck and I am very happy, Earthings.

If my life depended on it I would go to the best doctor in town regardless of my VA status. I don't think the VA will pay deductibles. They only pay in emergencies and then you have to get transferred to a VA hospital pronto. I had a severe foot infection. If I had gone to the VA I believe they would have cut off my foot eventually. I used outside doctors and it was still a real pain being on IV drip for three weeks. When you are really sick you can't afford screw ups which the VA is famous for doing. I got DX'ed with a heart thing by the VA. I immediately went to a cardiologist near my home for SECOP. The VA was off base.

Chu Lai I think you misunderstand what Berta was saying. There are PTSD wannabees out there, but the vast majority, as we all know, are not faking it to get a buck. Also, if you have any in-service records of any other mental health problem it is a lot easier to go with that than to start a PTSD claim from scratch. In our day it was rare for a soldier to go to a military shrink. It was considered the sign of a "screw up" if you asked to see a shrink no matter how bad your problem was at that time. However if you do have something in your records about a depression or anxiety problem that is better than trying to find records to prove some stressor happened unless you have the combat awards.

Did you get housebound SMC? You are entitled due to your ratings. It is an extra 295 bucks I think.

With 100% schedular you also have a better shot at A&A or housebound I think.

If this is new criteria for PTSD any soldier in a combat zone can claim PTSD and win a claim. To me that means any military person who set foot in Vietnam can claim PTSD if doctors say you have it because there was always some danger of incoming or some such threat. If you were at a smaller base you would be hearing and seeing tracer rounds and explosions of good guys and bad guys every night. This could get on your nerves. Of course, this is miles away from grunts deep in the jungle at some tiny firebase surrounded by NVA. However, I did know a clerk who got shot during a ground attack. These things do happen in combat zones. There are suicides and accidents where people get killed because everyone has a weapon. If you come back from a combat zone with anxiety and depression what is that? Is that PTSD?

I got reimbursed for dental bills from private dentist when I was waiting for IU appeal. I think you should be able to recoup some medical costs that you could have gotten for free if you had been granted IU. I think the VA will argue this point. They will say you chose to use private medical when you could have used the VA. John

In theory every soldier with a CIB, CAR or any combat medal could claim PTSD if they told their shrink they had the symtoms. I don't think most vets do this. No doubt some people in difficult economic situations will try and get money. Military people have all sorts of problems besides PTSD. I think the unprecedented focus on PTSD is not that great. There are probably more depressed soldiers stationed at some miserable base like Fort Polk than those suffering from PTSD. What is prevalance of depression driven alcoholim in the military? I would say very high from my experience. I think instead of fraud by vets againt the VA it is the other way around. Fraud against vets by the VA and military. The VA waiting 40 years to make IHD SC for AO. How many RVN vets have died in the meantime. Their widows got zip. The VA does not do independent research on AO diseases. They rely on studies done by IOM. If there is no money for IOM for AO research then it does not get done. To me that is criminal fraud against dying vet army.

If you are already 70% and have this low back pain radiating down your legs that probably means disc problems. How can you work under such conditions? Have you put in for IU. When does lumbar strain become herniated disc? What sort of surgery are they proposing or just nerve blocks? I know you can't sit or stand without pain. How can you work?

Perhaps after getting access to this Ebenefits site you will get a message "we are working on it....yawn" just like with 800# and Iris.

Topomax can affect your eyes. Watch it.

What is your rating now? If you are IU or 100% for ten years it does not matter what you die from your spouse gets DIC. If less than ten years you must die from SC condition. This is why you probably want a autopsy to show for sure exactly what was your cause of death so there is no doubt it is SC. This way you also get funeral paid by Uncle Sam. I am in the same boat. I am CAD for 60% secondary to AO DMII. I must be sure to die from SC condition, and avoid out of control beer trucks. Carlie posted something regarding an 81 year old widow who had been denied DIC for 16 years by the VA, so if they can screw you and yours they will do it.

What I have found is even when faced with obvious errors and EED mistakes the VA will try and just stonewall you with denials. It takes someone who really knows the law to keep filing the right paperwork and legal briefs. Say they owe you 30 years of retro for a claim. Nobody at the VARO level wants to accept responsibility for such an award. I think the BVA is not far behind on just stamping a denial on someting that means hundreds of thousands of bucks. That is why they made CUE so difficult for most vets to understand. It is hard to grasp why some gross error is not a CUE and another error is a CUE. I did my DRO for a CUE with a lawyer. He was certain the error was obvious. We got denied. Now we are at the BVA. Who knows what will happen, but at least I have someone who actually understands the concept arguing my case. You can't expect that from some VSO. They are too busy trying to recruit life members for their organization.

I think if a vet has congestive heart failure and IHD the VA is going to try and blame all vets conditions on the congestive heart failure which is not AO presumptive. I would put the kabosh on the congestive heart failure discussion with the VA.

If you say nothing has changed then you are going to get the 30% again. Too bad you don't have some new evidence to give to the exam doctor to show you have gotten worse. Are you working? That is a big factor in PTSD claims.

Bob I wonder if it would help you to hire a lawyer to try and get the earliest effective date for your PTSD. You might have a CUE somewhere. For them to deny a PTSD for a guy with your experience is so outrageous you might be able to get some major retro out of them. I think they are covering up potential costly mistake or error.

Bob As long as you really don't need what the VA has to offer it is OK to use their services. To use them as a way to document your disabilies is good. I got another notice from my private insurance company that the VA has again billed them for a service connected condition, and they paid. I am going to my congressman to stop this since the VAMC refuses to stop billing my private insurance for SC conditions. Bad enough they harass me about my SC pain disorder, and now they have the nerve to bill my insurance. Damn them! I can get the same care anywhere since I have medicare and Blue Cross. I go just to keep my oar in the water like you. Going will help your PTSD claim I am sure. I think I will just go to a pill mill and stop even using the pain clinic at the VA. I will line up with the junkies and get my dope from the the perscription pill pushers. The VA charges my insurance for all services and I am 100%. Damn them to hell.

I used the DAV for years. They never discussed anything with me. Never brought up topic of IU when I was unemployed. They never discussed strategy with me. You have to have a game plan with the VA. . They did not ever return phone calls. They are worse than useless in most ways. I asked for refund of my life membership. They said "no" of course.